Article transfer mechanism



Y June 25, 1957 wElNBERGER 2,796,974

ARTICLE TRANSFER MECHANISM Filed April 29, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. I

INVE N 7' OP K,Nember ez= K- WEINBERGER ARTICLE TRANSFER MECHANISM June25, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 29, 1954 lNVE/VTOP He in b ezyer2,796,974 7 ARTICLE TRANSFER MECHANISM Karl Weinberger,Dusseldorf-Neuss, Germany, assignor to Schloemann Aktiengesellschaft,Dusseldorf, Germany Application April 29, 1954, Serial No. 426,442

Claims priority, application Germany May 5, 1953 7 Claims. (Cl. 198-177)For, transporting wires produced in a rolling mill and wound intobundles hook railways are preferred. However, asthe bundles are woundhot, they must be cooled before being delivered to the hook railway tosuch an extent that they do not deform. With this object in view a chainconveyor is usually arranged between the reel-s and the hook railway.The transfer of the bundles from the chain conveyor to the hook railwaypresent-s ditficulties which it has been endeavoured to overcome byconstructions which are relatively expensive to produce.

The present invention overcomes these difficulties with very simplemeans.

It is proposed, according to the invention, toarrange the chain conveyorand the hook railway in a section at the end: of the conveying path ofthe chain conveyor sogthat they tend tomove apart in'fventical directionto enable theho'oks'to'take up the bundles. Thus, a smooth transfer ofthe bundles from the chain conveyor to the hook railway is attainedwithout additional means.

The chain conveyor and the hook railway are preferably so arranged thatthey are inclined to the horizontal at the same angle but in oppositedirections.

In this arrangement the chain conveyor and hook railway circulate at thesame conveying speed. To ensure uniformity of travel of the chainconveyor and the hook railway, the drive of the chain conveyor is gearedup withthe hook railway.

So as to bring the hooks of the hook railway under the bundles on thechain conveyor it is particularly recommended that the hooks of the hookrailway be brought into the range of the chain conveyor at the chainreversal point of the chain conveyor on the delivery side.

Two embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example inthe accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows the first form of construction in side elevation,

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 shows the second form of construction in side elevation,

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of Fig. 3.

The bundles 2 wound on the reel 1 are fed by an auxiliary conveyor 3 toa main conveyor 4 which carries them along in the direction of the arrow5. A guide rail 6 is arranged above the main conveyor 4 and guides thehooks 7 with their carriages 8 which are moved by an endless chain 9.The auxiliary conveyor 3, main conveyor 4 and the chain 9 of 'the hookrailway are driven by a common motor 10 and interconnected by gearing.The motor 10 drives the shaft 13 thru the intermediary of a gearing 12and the shaft 13 rotates the driving wheel 14 for the endless chain 9.Another train of gearing 16 is driven by a shaft and drives theauxiliary conveyor 3 thru the intermediary of a shaft 17 and drivingwheel 11 for the main chain conveyor 4 thru the intermediary of a shaft18. The hooks 7 run into the range of the chain conveyor 4 already atthe chain reversal point 11. The chain conveyor 4 and hook railway runat the same conveying speed so that the hooks always engage under thebundles 2.

veying pathof the chain conveyor 4 the chain conveyor 4 descends and theguide rail 6 of the hook railway ascends so that the chain conveyor andhook railway tend to move apart. At the same time the bundles 2 arelifted off the chain conveyor 4 by the hooks 7 of the hook railway whichengage under the bundles 2.

The present invention is not restrictedto the details of the forms ofconstruction described. 7 Thus fihevhooks need not be introduced intothe rangeof the chain con veyor at the chain reversal point of the chainconveyor on the delivery side, but it is also possible to allow thehooks to swing into the range of the :hook railway at any other point ofthe chain conveyor, for example bye suitably guiding the hooks fromabove or from the side.

It is frequently necessary, when carrying the wire wound in bundles inreels at the rolling heat, first to deposit the bundles on a chainconveyor to allow. them to cool before they are transferred to the hookrailway and conveyed to the store room or for further'treatment.

For transferring the bundles from the chain conveyor,

to the hook railway a chain conveyor is provided in the first form ofconstruction in which the hooks of the hook; railway run between the twochain strands of the ponveyor. The chain conveyor-and hook railwayrunparallel to each other along almost the entire; length ofthe.

chain conveyor; Towards the end of the chain conveyor this and the hookrailway are guided so that they tend to-separate in vertical direction,thus efiecting theta kelength d f'abo'ut 60'to meters with a conveyingspeed of about 4 to 10 meters per minute, in order to give the bundlessufiicient time to cool, the hook railway will have to be unnecessarilyextended. The plant therefore becomes difficult to supervise and to acertain extent is susceptible to trouble. This objection is overcome inthe second form of construction illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4. In thiscase the chain conveyor cooperating with the hook railway is kept asshort as possible and in particular is arranged at right angles to alonger chain conveyor at the delivery end thereof.

To ensure synchronous running of the conveyors, the drive of the longerchain conveyor on which the bundles cool down, is geared up with theshort delivery conveyor and the hook railway.

The wire leaving the rolling mill train is wound at its rollingtemperature into bundles on reels. These wire bundles are deposited onthe chain conveyor 21 if necessary with the aid of an interposedauxiliaiy conveyor in the manner described in connection with the firstform of construction. This conveyor, the delivery end of which is shownin the drawing, has a total length of about 60 to 80 meters. During thetime which each bundle remains on the chain conveyor the bundle coolsdown to such an extent that it can be delivered to the hook railway. Thebundle then passes from the chain conveyor 21 on to the deliveryconveyor 22. Furthermore a hook railway is provided, the hooks of whichenter between the chains 25 of the delivery conveyor 22 in the directionof conveyance. The hooks 24 of the hook railway run parallel with thechains 25 of the delivery conveyor 22 at least along the stretch inwhich the bundles 27 are transferred from the chain conveyor 21 to thedelivery conveyor 22.

As in the first form of construction the delivery conveyor 22 and thehook railway 23 tend to move apart in vertical direction, with theresult that the bundles 27 are taken over by the hooks 24 of the hookrailway 23 from the delivery conveyor 22. The driving gear 28 of thechain conveyor 21 and also the driving gear 29 of In the section at theend of the con-:

the delivery conveyor 22 and the drive 3110f the hook railway arepositively interconnected. The common driving motor 31 drives a gearing32, which through the intermediary of the shaft 33 drives the gearing 28which in turn drives not only the chain conveyor 21 but thru theintermediary of the cardan shaft 34 drives the gear 29 for the deliveryconveyor 22. The gear 32 also drives the driving chain wheel of the hookrailway 23 thru the intermediary of the shaft 35-. p

11 In an installation forautomatically lifting wire coils from achainconveyor of the type having spaced parallel chainsjthe combination of anoverhead track hook conveyor so position'ed over a portion of said chainconveyor to constitute a transfer point, the hooks of said hook conveyorpassing between the'spaced parallel chains of said chain conveyor in thesame direction of motion of said chain conveyor and at a speed at leastequal to the speed of said chain conveyor, said hook conveyor and saidchain conveyor being operated in timed relation with each other suchthat the hooks of said hook conveyor engage each coil of wire as itprogresses along said chain conveyor from the rearward outer side andfrom below at said transfer point, and said chain con-.

veyor and said hook conveyor diverge vertically upon leaving saidtransfer point whereby said coils of wire are each supported at therearward side by a hook while the forward side is lowered with respectto said rearward side to prevent free swinging movement of said coil onsaid hook.

2. An arrangement as set forth in claim 1, wherein the chain conveyorand the hook railway are inclined to the horizontal at the same anglebut in opposite directions.

3. An arrangement as set forth in claim 1, wherein the drive of thechain conveyor and the hook railway are intergeared to ensure uniformspeed of travel.

v An, arrangement as set, forth in claim 1, wherein the chain conveyorcooperating with the hook railway is as short as possible and arrangedat right angles to a longer chain conveyorat the delivery end thereof.

5. An arrangement as set forth in claim I, wherein the chain conveyorcooperating with the hook railway is as short as possible and arrangedat right angles to a longer chain conveyor at the delivery end thereof,and wherein the drives of this longer chain conveyor, the shorter chainconveyor and of the hook railway are geared up together.

6. Installation according to claim 1, characterized in that the chainconveyor and the hook track diverge from one another vertically at thepoint where the hook seizes the wire coil at an angle of approximately30 so that in lifting the wire coil from the chain conveyor the coil islifted slowly and without giving rise to swinging of the coil on thehook.

7. The installation according to claim 1, characterized in that twocoplanar chain conveyors are provided perpendicular to one another sothat the first chain conveyor delivers the wire coils to the secondchain conveyor and the wire coils are then taken along by the secondchain conveyor and the hook track extends above the second chainconveyor in parallelism thereto while the hooks of the track'engagearound the wire coils from the rearward outer side as they are deliveredfrom the first chain conveyor to the second chain conveyor.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS801,523 tI-Iinchman a a1. Oct. 10, 1905 1,018,586 Reno Feb. 27, 19121,447,326 Rose Mar. 6, 1923 2,237,160 OMalley Apr. 1, 1941

